Inland Valley voters can expect a rematch between Gloria Negrete-McLeod and Joe Baca.

In November, McLeod defeated Baca for the new 35th Congressional District, which spans from the Pomona to Fontana areas, with about 56 percent of the vote.

Baca said he is confident that come 2014, voters will view him as a more productive representative than his rival will manage to become during her freshman term.

"I want to make sure that we come back and we measure the effectiveness of our candidates," Baca said.

She responded to Baca's announcement with the following statement:

"The voters of California's 35th Congressional District spoke loud and clear in November, and now it's time to move forward and start tackling the tough issues facing our country."

Baca was first elected to Congress in a 1999 special election to succeed the late Rep. George Brown.

McLeod ousted him from his seat last year in a contest defined by three key developments - redistricting, a new elections system that allows party members to compete against each other during a general election and the rise of Super PAC spending.

In Baca's assessment that third factor - and not the virtues of his actual opponent - was the decisive factor in November.

Independence USA, a Super PAC affiliated with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, spent more than $5 million to support McLeod and oppose Baca.

"Many people feel that Bloomberg from New York should not dictate who runs in this area," Baca said.

Super PACs are allowed to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence election outcomes as long as they do not coordinate their activities with actual candidates.

Bloomberg is prominent gun control advocate and several of Independence USA's ads targeted Baca for his record on gun votes. Independence USA spokesman Stefan Friedman cited gun control in explaining the Super PAC's support for McLeod.

"From her tireless efforts to clean up the environment in the Inland Empire to her dedication to keeping guns out of the hands of criminals, Rep. Gloria Negrete-McLeod's views mirror those of the solid majority of Americans who believe that government must enact common-sense reforms," Friedman said in an email.

Baca, however, said the ads severely distorted his views on gun policy and clean water laws.

Although Baca has a pro-gun record for a Democrat, he said he would support Sen. Dianne Feinstein's proposal for a new federal assault weapons ban.

Aside from Independence USA's influence, geography appears to have been important in the past election.

The 35th District includes Los Angeles County communities that McLeod represented during her time in the state Senate. The shift to the west prompted Baca to move from Rialto to Fontana.

The election also took place under new rules that allow members of the same parties to run against each other in the general election.

If McLeod and Baca go against each other again in a Democrat-versus-Democrat contest, Claremont McKenna College political scientist Jack Pitney expects to see a bitter race.

"Ugly. That is the key word," he said. "We're talking about people who don't have profound issue differences. They're both Democrats. Races like that tend to turn on personalities."